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BEIJING, Feb. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

The six-part feature series "The Art Beat", which premiered on CGTN television

and various social media platforms on January 22, features six of China's

leading contemporary artists – five painters and one symphony conductor.

Produced in multiple languages, it describes how their art, by capturing the

spirit of the times, tells China's story from a cultural perspective.

Through their stories, and by examining the influences and innovation

manifested in their work, the series explores how they reflect and impact the

times they are living in. These artists, while garnering inspiration and

strength from traditional Chinese painting and music, are constantly

preoccupied with the future of their art in today's fast-changing world.

"Drawing is also a process of self-cultivation," says Chen Jialing, a leading

figure in the Shanghai School of traditional ink painting. Chen, famous for his

depictions of plum blossoms, makes innovative use of free-spirited lines to

describe the reality and picture the world around him.

"Painting and life, they were two lines before. As you walk farther and

farther, the separate two lines merged into one," says Jia Guangjian, dean of

the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts. Jia, who says he gains inspiration for his

painting from real life, has revived the boneless painting style and introduced

it into contemporary art.

"A painting should conform to the changes of the times. I follow modern

trends," says Fan Yang, doctoral supervisor at the Chinese National Academy of

Arts. Anything that catches his eye can become the subject of a painting, from

nurses treating COVID-19 patients, to spectacular scenery. Sensitive to the

changing times, Fan has spent many years painting a visual record of

developments in the world around him.

"Art prodigy" Wang Mingming learned to paint at the age of five. "I've been

trying to capture the spirit of the Chinese and identify the artistic

conception at the core of the Chinese arts," he says. Wang has now become

convinced that Chinese art must follow a Chinese path.

"We must preserve the essence of ancient art, while reflecting our contemporary

spirit and culture," says Feng Dazhong, an ink painter who was born into a

miner's family in Liaoning Province in 1949. Feng is known for his bold and

unconstrained paintings of tigers, which are hailed as "the finest tigers in

all the world".

"I'm all for the popularization of classical music. Since they need it, I'll do

it," says Zheng Xiaoying, China's first-ever female symphony conductor and the

first Chinese musician to conduct at an opera house abroad. The 93-year-old has

devoted her life to nourishing people's hearts and souls with music. At the end

of 2022, she and her student Wu Lingfen, with a combined age of 170, staged the

opera "La Traviata".

Season one of "The Art Beat" has received a warm response from international

audiences, who have described it as "inspirational" and "amazing". The second

season, which will be aired in mid-2023, will feature more Chinese artists who

are striving to preserve and innovate their art at a time of rapid social

change.

SOURCE  CGTN

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